Recap of UK trip

York - Fun to see Hannah and Kamala in this remarkable city.  Great museums, good eating, beautiful gardens in Spring bloom, and good B&B on the river.

Hannah's school building in background (I think)



Inside York Minster

York Minster from the Roman Wall



Walking along the Roman Wall on the way to dinner

 







 

Durham - A very early Norman Cathedral with original construction still in good condition.  We went to Evensong sung by a choir of young girls and a few men, one of the best we've heard.

 

Durham Cathedral from the train



One of many fields of yellow rapeseed to be made into canola oil.

 

 

Edinburgh - Rained a lot but the museums were good.  A photography exhibit at the Portrait Gallery was a highlight.

 

Starting the audio guide tour of Holyrood Palace,
 the Queen's Edinburgh residence



Ruined Abbey adjoining the palace

 

 

Glasgow - Highlights were C. Rennie Mackintosh museum and a Royal Scottish National Orchestra concert with a fantastic young violinist (born 1986) who played a very difficult Benjamin Britten concerto with great feeling and skill.  It was beautiful and she gave an encore of a Norwegian folk tune.

 

Rennie Mackintosh windows on a residence passed while
 trying to find our way to the Kelvin river walk



Kelvin river walk

 

Happy Birthday mom!!

Happy Birthday.  Hope you had a great day.

Can't wait for the week in Hawaii.

See you soon.

Catalina Island

Catalina Island is a beautiful hilly place with few cars, but lots of golf carts and bicycles.  The water looked very clear but it was not yet warm enough to swim without a wet suit.  We took a self-guided tour of the area in a golf cart that gave us spectacular views of the mountains and the shoreline.  Nathan was able to fish from the pier or the shore - he caught a big one shortly before we left to get the ferry back to the mainland. Everybody wants to go back.

A view on the golf-cart ride



Our lodgings were perfect, 10 minute walk to town and beach, and this spectacular view from the veranda

Ring Around the Rosie with Knox

Introducing Shadow Lake

We have 2 weeks to make our decision about buying this piece of property. The lake is beautiful; over 50 acres, deep, clean, and not very developed due to a good part of the shoreline having been preserved for wetland diversity. That's the good new. The down side is that we are buying a peat bog: aka a swamp. The piece of property however is quite lovely. The forest is very sparse and open, and at this time of year quite green with the moss. The adjoining piece of property is owned by a non-profit organization that is trying to preserve the peat bog ecosystem. One of the last remaining intact bogs in King County. Because of the 1/2 an acre feels much larger.

 This is a community dock at the North end of the lake.

 The distant floating dock comes with the property

 The road to Shadow Lake. We had to park at the gate as we don't have a key. All the land to the right and at the end of the road is part of a protected area.

 Derelict travel trailer.

 The understory.

 Look at this artifact! Was I 'meant' to have this property or what!? Usable picnic table in the background. Just needs a few boards replaced. "Grass" needs mowing (as well as all those noxious sapling. I am sure they are an invasive species.)

 

 

The trailer, although vintage, and at one time very cute is completely trashed and will have to be hauled away. I thought we were going to find human body remains in there. Inexpensive travel trailers though, are easy to find on Craig's list, so I think we will have a cabin-like place to stay come the summer. What did I do before Craig's list? I have also found sunfish and Snarks galore for re-sale, but I think I ought to buy the property before I start to clutter it with boats.

Nathan is 18 today

Happy Birthday Nathan

Monteverde

We again had a very knowledgeable guide just for the two of us. He was very good at finding birds in his telescope. The highlight was a quetzal (you can just make it out among the leaves) but we also saw an emerald toucanet, hummingbirds of many varieties, warblers, jays, quail and probably others I've forgotten. We didn't see any animals except Coati and we had a better view of one that walked across our porch after we got back. The waterfall below was also on that tour.

This was really interesting. It's a caterpillar covered with some sort of insect larvae parasite.  The caterpillar will soon be a goner but was still alive.  We are learning incredible things.

Costa Rica

Our first day was a great success. On our rainforest tour we saw a sloth, a tarantula, wasps digging holes to find tarantula nests, a morpho butterfly, we ate a termite, we saw the volcano giving off steam which is not visible in the picture, and we learned a whole lot about volcanoes.  Today we took a bus, a boat, and another bus to a cloud forest area which is higher than a rain forest. The picture is on the porch of our cabin which is surrounded by lush vegetation.